Rocketship Education: A Decade of Experience Bringing Great Schools to Every Community

The 74million article, “Smith: 10 Lessons from Rocketship Education’s First Decade as a Pioneer of K-5 Personalized Learning” by Preston Smith, discusses the non-profit public charter schools and the impact they have made on low-income communities.

Rocketship Education has been teaching their young “Rocketeers” for over a decade now, serving the low-income communities by providing incredible education opportunities. The article focuses on the ten lessons that they have discovered over the past decade. They come to understand that personalized learning begins at home, parents incredible influence over their child’s education, teachers create culturally responsive schools, and actions speak louder than words.

Personalized learning, or lesson plans and engagement strategies that are tailored to the student’s learning styles, are at the center of the organization. In order to increase student agency, Rocketship education incorporated technology into the lesson plans. However, they also include home visits to help the parents develop deeper relationships with their child’s teacher.

Rocketship Education believes in the power of their students’ parents. They are able to engage, organize and participate in a leadership program. This encourages parents to take action in the political arena and to make sure the leaders are accountable for their decisions.

One of their fundamental beliefs is that students should not need to leave their community in order to find a great education. A part of developing this community is by bringing teacher diversity into the fold. They have also created a “meaningful-inclusion model” to provide education to students with disabilities.

Rocketship Education was founded in 2006 as a non-profit system of charter schools. They focus on helping low-income communities that lack access to excellent schools. The company seeks to provide a school model that increases student achievement for the underserved students. They focus on providing personalized learning for each individual student in order to match the student’s needs with the right content and means of instruction.

They also believe a large part of their success is through involving the parents in the school community and in the student’s learning. They encourage the parents and guardians to be advocates for their child’s education.